Chris Brown is part of an endangered species. At a time when more often than not places like Vancouver stand in for San Francisco in the movies, the writer-director shoots his films here. The fourth-generation Bay Area resident, who grew up in Pleasanton and has lived in San Francisco since moving to the city to study film at San Francisco State University, wouldn't have it any other way.

"This is really my home," he says during a recent phone call. "This is where my friends are. This is where my family is. I love it here. I think especially in this age, you can make films anywhere. I don't make universal films or general films. I make specific films. And I am a believer in regional filmmaking and filmmaking about the life you know and the people you know and the culture you know, so I stay in the Bay Area."

"Fanny, Annie & Danny," Brown's latest, a dark and sometimes darkly funny tale of family dysfunction at Christmas, makes its local premiere at the star-heavy Mill Valley Film Festival, which opens Thursday with Sam Rockwell presenting his newest film, "Conviction," and closes Oct. 17 with James Franco the main attraction for "127 Hours."

"Fannie, Annie & Danny" will play Oct. 13 and 15. In November, the winner of the Kansas City Film Festival's Best U.S./International Narrative Feature award will play at the San Francisco Film Society's Cinema by the Bay series. It's one of 21 feature movies by Bay Area filmmakers showing at Mill Valley. Overall there are 143 films at the festivals from 46 different countries.

"Variety" compared Brown's last feature, "Scared New World" (2005), to "Shadows," John Cassavetes' groundbreaking classic. "Fanny, Annie & Danny," in which three siblings, their Vietnam vet dad, and ferocious mother reunite for a tense holiday, is another character-driven drama. The Cassavetes comparison is one Brown has been hearing throughout his career, even before he says he was aware of Cassavetes' work.

"The funny thing about that is - a filmmaker I admired actually - when I was much younger said, 'Your work reminds me a lot of Cassavetes,' " he says. "At that point, I only knew that John Cassavetes was the guy in 'Rosemary's Baby.' I was so stupid; I didn't even know that he'd made any films (as a director). So I said, 'OK, interesting, I'll go watch his films.' Well, of course, Cassavetes has become very important to me. A lot of people have compared my work to his and all I can say is it's an honor."

The film is truly a local production right down to a cast full of Bay Area residents, including Brown's wife, Jill Pixley, who plays Fanny, the developmentally disabled eldest daughter in a stressed family (she won the best acting prize at the San Antonio Film Festival for her performance). Many actors were performers the filmmaker had worked with previously. The rest of the cast was put together with the help of casting consultant Jessica Heidt, a former longtime casting director at Magic Theatre and current Climate Theater artistic director.

"She turned me on to a lot of great, great, great Bay Area talent," Brown says.

"I really wrote it for three friends," he adds. "That was sort of the beginning of it, and I tried to fill the parts with as many friends as I could, because you're always trying to get the band back together and you're wanting to work with people you love and people who are talented. With every film, you widen the circle of friends. The rep company gets larger."

Brown believes he knows why Hollywood rarely films on location in the area. Not only is it expensive for large productions, but he notes, "I imagine if you have 10 grip trucks and you need to stop traffic and you need to do a car chase where the car careens out over the edge of Union Street or something, it would be difficult.

"But we go out and we're three or four people with a little camera," he continues. "We've very unobtrusive. It's a nice way to shoot. And it's my town, so I really know it and I don't come here expecting some sort of - I'm not shooting here for the postcard views. I'm trying to shoot San Francisco and the Bay Area that I know. I love shooting here; it's not difficult at all."

He filmed all over the Bay Area and even a little bit beyond, including locations at his grandmother's house in Tracy, another home in Berkeley, a dentist's office in San Rafael, San Francisco Muni buses and city streets, and even in his own apartment. But the location that excited him most was Hayward's Annabelle Candy Co. Inc., one of the last independent candy factories in the United States.

"Susan Karl is the granddaughter of the man who invented Rocky Road, and she runs the company," he says. "I've enjoyed Rocky Road candy bars and U-No candy bars and Big Hunk all my life, and I've been sort of aware that Annabelle has been there. I went down there and talked to her. She's a wonderful, terrific woman, and she has kind of a filmmaking past. She studied a bit at film school before studying law. She said, 'Absolutely, you can come in here and do whatever you want.' It was a lot of fun being in that candy factory, very Willy Wonka-ish. People have worked there for decades. It's kind of the best example of a small business and a family business."

"People are so generous," he says of his Bay Area filmmaking adventures. "They just let us shoot for nothing. We paid for no location. Everyone was so generous and open armed."

By the time "Fanny, Annie & Danny" reaches Mill Valley, it will have played festivals in Kansas City; Charlotte, N.C.; San Antonio; Saugatuck, Mich.; Marfa, Texas; Albuquerque; Minneapolis; New Brunswick, N.J.; and Carmel. But the Mill Valley Film Festival holds a special place in his heart, and not just because nearly all of the cast and crew will be in attendance.

"I really feel like Mill Valley is my home festival in a lot of ways," he says. "They've shown all my work and I love the festival, so it's a real honor to play there. It's like coming home in a lot of ways." {sbox}

The 33rd Mill Valley Film Festival: Thursday-Oct. 17. CinéArts Sequoia and 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the Century Cinema in Corte Madera, and several other Marin venues. (877) 874-6833, 2010. mvff.com.